Eight people arrested in connection to Phelps bong picture
Wire Services
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Eight people connected to a South Carolina party where Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps was allegedly photographed smoking pot from a bong have been arrested, Columbia’s WIS-TV has reported.
The Richland County Sheriff’s Department arrested seven of the suspects for possession of marijuana and the eighth for dealing, according to the station.
One arrest included the suspected owner of the bong — who was allegedly trying to sell the pipe on eBay for $100,000.
Phelps has not been charged in the case.
More details have also emerged about the party Phelps attended in November when the picture was taken.
It is now believed the record-breaking Olympic swimmer took part in a high-stakes game of “beer pong,” a drinking game in which players lob Ping-Pong balls into plastic cups.
Phelps was betting big — and losing.
“I saw Phelps pull out a roll, a bank-wrapped $2,000,” said Michael Whitworth, who had been invited to a house near the Five Points area of the city after his band played a show at 5 Points Pub (now Sudworks Taphouse).
“He said, ‘I’ll match the $2, 000,’” Whitworth continued, referring to Phelps. “Good ol’ Phelpsie lost it, too.”
Some in the house that night knew Phelps, but most of the people were drop-ins checking out what was called “The Michael Phelps Party.” Besides Whitworth, two people told The State newspaper in Columbia that they saw Phelps betting money while playing beer pong.
The two asked for anonymity out of fear they would be caught up in Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott’s investigation into Phelps’ marijuana use that night.
Well after midnight, a female South Carolina student said she saw a young woman she did not know snap a cellphone photo of Phelps smoking from a bong, a marijuana water pipe.
Was that the photo the British tabloid News of the World published Feb. 1, denting the Olympic hero’s public image and putting tens of millions of dollars in endorsement deals in jeopardy?
That might never be known.
The photo that got Phelps, 23, in trouble could have been taken by any of the dozens of partyers at the house that night — or on other nights when Phelps was in Columbia the first week of November.
A student at Ole Miss, for example, wrote on an Internet message board that a friend of his took the photo and “is real upset about the whole thing because he swears he didn’t sell it.” That friend — South Carolina student Cason Milner — first denied, then told a reporter from The State he took a photo of Phelps at that house on his iPhone.
But he insists it wasn’t the photo that was published in the tabloid because, he said, he lost his phone with the photo.
Even if the mystery of who took the photo, and who sold it, is never solved, one thing is clear: Friends tried to protect Phelps, but he made little effort to hide his behavior those nights in Columbia.
The notorious photo of the champion Olympic swimmer appears to have been taken at the house at 2201 Blossom St., where five witnesses interviewed by The State say Phelps partied.
The house, which sits on a hill, has a wraparound porch that early last week was littered with pizza boxes, broken beer bottles and a keg. Pictures of scantily clad women were taped to the front door.
Two security cameras guard the porch, sending a live stream to a flat-screen television just inside the front door.
When Whitworth, a guitarist in Atlanta-based band Holiday Parade, arrived at the house shortly after midnight Nov. 4, two men asked him not to take pictures of Phelps.
“They were pretty strict about it at the door,” he said. “They were just asking people to be courteous.”
The front room was clogged with people — and marijuana smoke. A bong was being passed around the room, which held 15 to 20 people, Whitworth said.
“It was the aroma of the evening,” he said. “The scent of it filled the entire house.”
Whitworth said Phelps was in an adjacent room playing beer pong. He said he didn’t see Phelps smoking pot.
The room seen in the photo has pink and white striped wallpaper. When shown an enlarged copy of the photo last week, a former owner of the house recognized the wallpaper she said she hung, but did not recognize the window shutter on the left side of the photo.
The current owner of the house, identified in county property records, has a Mount Pleasant address. Efforts to reach him Thursday and Friday by voice mail were unsuccessful.
Phelps continues to reel from the fallout.
On Thursday, USA Swimming announced it was suspending him from competition for three months and withdrew financial support during that time.
Phelps had planned to swim at the Austin Grand Prix on March 5-7.
Most of his corporate sponsors backed Phelps. Apparel company Speedo and luxury Swiss watchmaker Omega called the incident a “nonissue.” But on Thursday, Kellogg’s said it would not renew its partnership with Phelps after its deal expires at the end of the month.
In an interview with The (Baltimore) Sun, Phelps said he is considering not swimming at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
He also said he doesn’t smoke marijuana regularly.
“This was stupid, and I know this won’t happen again,” he said in a story published Thursday.
“It’s obviously bad judgment, and it’s something I’m not proud of at all.”
Drew Johnson of the Octagon sports and entertainment agency, which represents Phelps, told The State on Saturday that Phelps would have no further comment.
“I would just say Michael has addressed his behavior in the statement he issued earlier this week,” Johnson said.
Richland County Sheriff spokesman Lt. Chris Cowan referred all questions to a statement issued last week that read, “The Richland County Sheriff’s Department is making an effort to determine if Mr. Phelps broke the law. If he did, he will be charged in the same manner as anyone else.”
Cowan declined to discuss details of the department’s investigation.
The photo and Lott’s vow to investigate Phelps have been hotly debated in the media here and abroad. There have been op-ed columns in, among others, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The Washington Post and on Newsweek.com, some criticizing Phelps and some, Lott.
Phelps continues to receive support on Internet message boards, and there are several YouTube videos supporting him, including one presented by High Times, a pro-marijuana magazine.
Phelps had spent time in Columbia before.
His coach, Bob Bowman, is from nearby Irmo. One of Phelps’ closest friends played soccer at South Carolina, and his ex-girlfriend attends the college.
Witnesses say as many as 30 to 50 people were at that Monday-night house party on Blossom Street. But the night began a few blocks away.
A female South Carolina student said a group of friends were with Phelps at Village Idiot Pizza & Pub. The Devine Street restaurant buzzed as onlookers tried to get photos of Phelps.
As he stood between the bar and the kitchen, two Village Idiot employees attempted to limit access to Phelps, the female student said.
Earlier that afternoon, as Phelps ate at Mellow Mushroom in the Vista area, employees kept a watchful eye on anyone who inquired about him.
But at the house party, anyone who wanted to chat up Phelps had easy access.
Tyson Sellers, a South Carolina student who was at the Blossom Street house later in the week, wanted to take a photo of Phelps.
The Olympian declined, saying he couldn’t be photographed while drinking. But Phelps did agree to speak to Sellers’ mother — a big fan of his — on the phone.
When Sellers was at the house, he said, he didn’t see any marijuana smoking, but said Phelps had “a lot of girls around him.”
One female South Carolina student, who said she has hung out with Phelps in Columbia several times, said it was another young woman who took the photo in question.
“She took her iPhone out of her pocket” and took the picture, she said. “I just thought, that’s (messed) up.”
But she doesn’t know the identity of the photographer, one of many people at the “The Michael Phelps Party.”
“I don’t think you’ll ever find out who took it,” she said. “It could’ve been anyone.”
http://www.ajc.com/sport...orts/s...cxntlid=thbz_hmYou lock the door, and throw away the key
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